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Straw Bale Garden 2013

Where I work, we have an outdoor area that could be very nice. There is a covered deck, surrounded by a nice fence, and quite an open space. However, it is rock, with weeds mixed in. There is not much to look at, but it has SO much potential. After a conversation with my boss and coworker, we decided to finally take advantage of that area – and the “Straw Bale Garden” was born!

Full credit must be given to my coworker, Emily, who also serves as my gardening instructor (god bless her because I know I am driving her crazy with all of my questions.) She is the mastermind behind this whole thing! As our outdoor space is mostly rock, this was the most sensible (and cheapest, easiest) way to grow our own veggies at work. To get started, we first took a poll at work at what type of veggies/plants everyone wanted. The results are as follows:

4 “better boy” tomatoes plants

2 cherry tomatoes

2 zucchini

1 yellow squash

1 eggplant

2 banana pepper

1 green bell pepper

1 red bell pepper

salad greens

12 marigolds

10 asparagus crowns (planted in tractor tire)

strawberries (planted in tractor tire)

Then the fun started. Last Friday, we blocked out the afternoon and went shopping for straw bales! Our organization supports local businesses, so of course local nurseries were our first stop! All week we watered and prepped the bales of straw to get ready to plant. We also set up two tractor tires to use for the asparagus and strawberry plants. Today, we once again made the trip out to a local nursery and bought the plants. Then the planting began! We got everything planted except for the salad greens and strawberries – that is to come!

See below of the work done so far, and I will be sure to keep you updated on the straw bale garden! For specific information regarding the wonders of straw bale gardening, check out Emily’s blog at elephantgrace.com.

Garden Dream Team workday outside the office!

@elefantgrace and her creepy scarecrow!

Obviously @elefantgrace is the professional! I looked confused or ran into things the majority of the trip!

Straw bales with the plants (salad greens have not been planted yet.)

Prepping the tractor tire. “Reusing” cardboard, shredded paper, and newspaper to fill in the space.